1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to bowling ball return systems and methods.
2. Background Art
The ancient game of bowling has seen much in the evolution of the methods and devices used to return the a bowling ball to the bowler after the bowling ball has been used to knock down bowling pins. Many of the methods used manually by human pin setters were carried over to mechanical devices. One such device includes a mechanical arm that lifts the bowling ball to a track elevated above the bowling alley in the pit area. The bowling ball builds up momentum and therefore speed by rolling down the inclined track to a level track running along side and usually below the alley to the approach or player's area. The elevation of the inclined track needed to be high enough to provide initial speed to the bowling ball so that it could reach the ball storage racks located above the alley at the approach end of the alley. To assist the bowling ball in rolling up the inclined plane to the ball storage rack, wheel and belt devices were devised to impart sufficient added momentum to the ball to allow it to roll up the inclined plane to the storage rack.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,987,000 (Bowling Alley) issued Jan. 8, 1935 to G. F. Cahill discloses as one of the objectives of the invention to accelerate the return of the bowling ball from the pin or pit end of the alley to the approach or player's end of the alley and in particular to enable the bowling ball to climb to the elevated player's end, which is elevated above the pit end of the alley. Various devices are disclosed for use in accelerating the bowling ball using wheels and belts in contact with the bowling ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,787 (Suction Lifter) issued on Jul. 1, 1941 to G. J. Schmidt discloses a transfer mechanism comprising a suction head provided with a vacuum and motor controlled assembly that can lift and relocate a bowling ball from one position to another, and is used to relocate a bowling ball from a pit area to an elevated track for its initial acceleration from the pit area to the approach area. In addition, this system could be configured to relocate the bowling ball from a location on the track below the alley to a ball storage rack located above the alley.
In typical bowling ball return systems, the bowling ball is accelerated from the pit area by the various methods discussed. The bowling ball is accelerated only to the point where it can reach a location below the approach area. The bowling ball is then fed into a power lift assembly which carries the bowling ball upward into the ball storage rack. The lift assembly is housed in a ball lift hood to conceal it from the player's view. There are inherent problems associated with these typical return devices that include the need to stop operations because balls of varying weights have traveled at various speeds and have become jammed in the return or at the power lift.
The use of track to transport the bowling ball from the pit area to the approach area of a bowling alley has seen extensive use. The use of track to transport a sphere in general has been disclosed in various arts as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 1,885,662 (Electric Railway System) issued on Nov. 1, 1932 to H. K. Whitehorn. Whitehorn discloses a sphere being transported over a two rail system as well as a tube.
Pneumatic tube transmission systems have been employed to transport containers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,939 (Pneumatic Tube Transmission System With Slow-Down Blower) issued on Jan. 15, 1991 to M. J. Foreman and H. R. Greene and U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,038 (Pneumatic Tube System) issued on Jan. 16, 1973 to W. M. Van Otteren disclose such pneumatic systems.